Gears of War

This article is about the franchise. For the video game, see Gears of War (video game). For other uses, see Gears of War (disambiguation).

Gears of War
Genre(s)Third-person shooter
Developer(s)
Publisher(s)Xbox Game Studios
Creator(s)Cliff Bleszinski
Platform(s)
First releaseGears of War
November 7, 2006
Latest releaseGears 5
September 10, 2019
Spin-offs

Gears of War is a media franchise centered on a series of video games created by Epic Games, developed and managed by The Coalition, and owned and published by Xbox Game Studios. The franchise is best known for its third-person shooter video games, which has been supplemented by spin-off video game titles, a DC comic book series, eight novels, a board game adaptation and various merchandise.

The original trilogy focuses on the conflict between humanity and the subterranean reptilian humanoid known as the Locust Horde on the world of Sera. The first installment, Gears of War, was released on November 7, 2006, for the Xbox 360. The game follows protagonist Marcus Fenix, a soldier in the Coalition of Ordered Governments tasked to lead a last-ditch effort to destroy the Locust Horde and save humanity. Two subsequent titles, Gears of War 2 (2008) and Gears of War 3 (2011), featured a three-way conflict between humanity, the Locust Horde and their mutated counterparts, the Lambent. Gears of War: Judgment, a spin-off prequel to the series' first title, was released in 2013; it focuses on Damon Baird, one of Fenix's squad-mates.[1] Gears of War: Ultimate Edition was released for the Xbox One and Microsoft Windows between August 2015 to March 2016.[2] The fourth installment in the main series, Gears of War 4, is set 25 years after Gears of War 3 and follows Marcus Fenix's son, JD and his friends as they battle security forces deployed by a totalitarian COG government as well as the Swarm, a reconstituted version of the Locust Horde that once again threatens humanity.[3] Gears 5 (2019) is the direct sequel to Gears of War 4 and revolves around Kait Diaz, a friend of JD, who embarks on an adventure to learn the truth about her past and the connections between her history and the Locust Horde.

Gears of War was developed by Epic Games. Cliff Bleszinski, who has previously worked on Epic's Unreal Tournament games, served as the series' lead game designer for the first three installments. He was inspired by gameplay elements from Resident Evil 4. Kill Switch, and Bionic Commando.[4] The series was guided by Rod Fergusson, the executive producer and director of development of Epic Games until 2012.[5][6] The first four installments of the Gears of War series used a modified version of the Unreal Engine 3 engine.[7][8] In January 2014, Microsoft acquired rights to the franchise from Epic Games. Canadian studio The Coalition developed Gears of War 4, which was released on October 11, 2016, for the Xbox One and Windows 10.[9] A sequel, Gears 5, was released in September 2019. All six installments in Gears of War featured several multiplayer modes that allowed players to compete against each other or team-up to battle AI opponents on Xbox Live.

Gears of War became one of the best-selling franchises for the Xbox 360.[10] The series puts emphasis on cover-based combat, in which players can use objects to avoid gunfire or safely engage enemies.[11] The Gears of War games have been amongst the most popular and most played titles on Xbox Live.[10][12]

  1. ^ Dyer, Mitch (March 17, 2013). "Trial By Fire". IGN. Archived from the original on February 23, 2014. Retrieved February 2, 2014.
  2. ^ "Gears of War: Ultimate Edition and Killer Instinct coming to Windows 10". Gematsu. July 31, 2014. Archived from the original on June 26, 2015. Retrieved June 25, 2015.
  3. ^ "Gears of War 4 Gets Tons of New Details on Game Informer". DualShockers. Archived from the original on December 22, 2016. Retrieved April 8, 2016.
  4. ^ "Cliff Bleszinski – His Last Gears Of War Interview". NowGamer. GamesTM. October 4, 2012. Archived from the original on February 22, 2014. Retrieved February 2, 2014. Cliff Bleszinski: Yes, the original game was a Battlefield/Enemy Territory-style game that featured classes, landscapes, vehicles, and was far more multiplayer oriented. Soon after playing the heck out of games like Resident Evil 4 and Kill.Switch, we realised we wanted a game that had a fun, summer, blockbuster-feeling campaign, with integrated co-op, and a solid, if simple, multiplayer.
  5. ^ Maguire, Matt (January 24, 2013). "MS buys Gears franchise, Black Tusk has the reins". Gameplanet. Archived from the original on February 1, 2014. Retrieved February 2, 2014. "Gears is just as much Rod's baby as it was mine. He'll take good care of her".
  6. ^ McWhertor, Michael (January 27, 2014). "Microsoft acquires Gears of War from Epic, hires series producer Rod Fergusson". Polygon. Archived from the original on November 5, 2015. Retrieved February 2, 2014.
  7. ^ Busby, Jason; Parrish, Zak; Wilson, Jeff (2009). "History of Unreal". Mastering Unreal Technology, Volume I: Introduction to Level Design. Vol. 1. Indianapolis, IN: Sams Pub. p. 11. ISBN 978-0672329913.
  8. ^ Groen, Andrew (January 24, 2013). "Unreal Engine 4 games coming 2013, Epic to lead with own titles". GamesRadar. Archived from the original on March 2, 2014. Retrieved February 2, 2014.
  9. ^ Purchese, Robert (January 27, 2014). "Epic sells Gears of War to Microsoft". Eurogamer. Gamer Network. Archived from the original on January 30, 2014. Retrieved January 27, 2014.
  10. ^ a b Wilson, Aoife (January 23, 2014). "Has Gears of War killed off Microsoft's hot new Xbox One game?". TechRadar. Archived from the original on February 1, 2014. Retrieved February 2, 2014.
  11. ^ Killian, Taylor (February 1, 2014). "Gears of War Franchise Now Fully Owned by Microsoft". Co-Optimus. Archived from the original on February 8, 2014. Retrieved February 2, 2014.
  12. ^ Purchese, Robert (January 23, 2013). "The most popular games on Xbox Live in 2012 were..." Eurogamer. Archived from the original on January 6, 2014. Retrieved February 2, 2014.